This is a compilation I bought years ago from IVP Videos, which features a load of matches with Ring of Honor alumni wrestling in Japan. I bought it because it felt like a nice way to ease me into Japanese wrestling, which was a weak point of mine at the time, but I hardly ever watched it. I think it's still for sale on the site, though it's now called USA Invades Japan (even though two matches feature no American wrestlers), and it's well worth a pick-up
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs Masato Yoshino &
Naruki Doi
Pretty much a non-stop tag match that opens with typical tag
formula, but has all broken down by the end. I liked the way the Aries &
Strong team had differing roles, with Strong played up as the muscle and Aries
the daredevil. Their teamwork early on is really fluid, all quick tags and
double teams as they work over Doi. Aries, in turn, is soon isolated by Doi and
Yoshino, with a high-speed corner cannonball from Doi looking brutal. It’s
after the hot-tag to Strong that things break down, and the concept of having
to tag in-and-out is forgotten. It’s one of those things that you have to
accept as a condition of the style (this being a Dragon Gate match), even
though on a personal level traditional tag formula is one of my favourite
things. As a high-speed spotfest, the rest of the match does deliver and is
pretty exciting in the final stages. Some really nice spots here – loved Roddy
hitting a Northern Lights suplex that throws Yoshino onto Doi and I loved the
way that the corner train run by Yoshino, Doi and their entourage was TOO
successful, as Aries collapses to the mat before Doi gets to him, in turn
leaving Doi open to Strong and his entourage running in on him. A missile
dropkick/powerbomb combo by Aries & Strong seems to fold up Doi, who looks
legit hurt – his kick out from the following pinfall looks more like Roddy just
getting off him. Aries eats a fireman’s carry slam on the top of his head,
before Yoshino accidentally gets a face full of powder from his teammate, and
takes a Strong backbreaker and a match winning Aries 450.
Rocky Romero vs Mushiking Terry
There’s a moment 4 minutes into this match where I realise
it’s already terrible and isn’t going to get any better. It’s when the two guys
start exchanging German suplexes where the person receiving the move is on his
feet before the guy giving it, before both go down from a simultaneous head
kick. It marks it straight away as one of those matches where moves happen but
none of them matter. It’s especially galling when Romero had done some
respectable arm-work on Terry – kicking out the arm on a handstand into the
ropes, locking on a cross-armbreaker – that is undermined by these suplexes.
Romero does keep going back to the armbreaker, but drops it in the second half
of the bout and Terry doesn’t sell any of it anyway. There are a few nice
moments here, as I liked a tornillo Terry hit, and I enjoyed Romero breaking a
suplex attempt with a knee to the head whilst in the air only for Terry to grab
the knee on a second reversal to hit a fisherman buster. Ultimately though,
this is just moves, culminating with Terry winning with a top rope hiptoss.
Bryan Danielson vs KENTA
Hey, this is much better. Not entirely surprising. Loved
Danielson’s performance throughout this, really feels like a match he’s in
complete control off. Early on the two exchange strikes, and Danielson counters
KENTA’s forearms with these amazing looking European uppercuts. Danielson
controls the matwork, really feeling like he’s wearing KENTA down. Especially
loved him grinding his knuckles into the kidneys to gain control of the arms
for a surfboard. Not to say KENTA is totally a passenger in this, as his comebacks
are nicely timed and feel believable. His kicks all connect with a satisfying
thud. It’s just that Danielson feels like an elite performer throughout, like
he’s the one driving the direction of that contest. Loved Danielson meeting a
top rope stomp with a big boot to the face from the mat, one of the few times
that counter has ever looked good. The bridge on Danielson’s German suplex is
terrific, showing amazing neck strength. The ending portion sees both guys
upping the tempo to try and finally put the other away. A huge top rope back
suplex from Danielson sees him just…holding…KENTA…in..the..air, before they
crash to the mat, and him wearing KENTA down for Cattle Mutilation with elbows
to the head looked great. In the end, KENTA is able to fire back with one last
kick combo, hit the GTS and barely escape with the win. Great match.
Jushin Liger, Jack Evans, Matt Sydal & BxB Hulk vs
Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Kevin Steen & Magnitude Kishiwada
This was a whole bundle of fun, and it’s interesting to pick
out little running stories throughout the match. Loved how, amongst a lot of
lithe high-fliers, Kishiwada and Steen stand out as two lads happy to hurl
their relative bulk onto their prone opponents, with flipping sentons and
flipping legdrops landing with satisfying thuds. Also, it’s fun to see Liger
getting bigger reactions from a shoulderblock battle with Kishiwada than most
of these guys get from some impressive acrobatics. Evans bumps like a trooper
in the match, with my favourite moment seeing him go up top to go for a 630,
only for Kishiwada to hurl a chair at him from off camera, sending him to the
floor. The camera work is terrific, as we only see the chair flying from
nowhere sending Evans flying. Some lovely looking moves in the match too, with
everything Sydal does looking really crisp. Evans hits a nutty backflip into a
stomp in the corner on Doi that looks terrific. The end run is really fun, as
Yoshino eats a face full of powder by accident, before Liger brainbusters him
and Sydal gets the pin with a shooting star press. Really fun.
Nigel McGuinness & Doug Williams vs Takeshi Rikio &
Kishin Kawabata
Bit of a short match here, but it’s fun while it lasts. The
Brits get overpowered at first by the larger Rikio and Kawabata, so switch
their tactics accordingly. Liked them doing the WoS equivalent of the Garvin
Stomp, circling Kawabata’s body and each wrenching a limb for a 4 count, then moving
onto the next one. Rikio feels like the big issue they have to contend with in
the match, as he’s pretty dominant in there. Love the big cross body he uses to
plough through Nigel. However, Kawabata accidentally hits him with a lariat,
and the Brits manage to isolate him, Williams nailing Chaos Theory to win.
Good, but would have benefited from another 5 minutes.
The Briscoe Brothers vs Kotato Suzuki & Ricky Marvin
In contrast, this could do with being 5 minutes shorter.
There’s a lot in this I really liked, with some early sequences looking great.
Loved the insane top rope reverse rana that Marvin hits on Jay Briscoe, and
Marvin running the length of the ramp to hit a baseball slide dropkick into the
ring on Jay, whilst Suzuki holds him in a Camel Clutch, looked terrific. It’s just
that the pacing feels off – Suzuki is already taking 2.9 pinfalls 10 minutes
into the match, and it’s a bout that goes 26m. This means that the Briscoes go
from nearly having the match won to suddenly just working holds on Suzuki, instead
of trying to finish him off. More annoyingly, the hot tag to Marvin comes from
nowhere, with no build up. At this point, the match really starts losing it’s
tag structure, and all four guys are getting hit with big bombs with not much
lasting effect. Jay Briscoe takes a tombstone piledriver, and he’s back on the
apron taking a tag inside 30 seconds. Later on, he gets hit with a spinning
tombstone and they don’t even bother with a pinfall. Meanwhile, the Briscoes
run a huge series of big bombs on Suzuki, all for 2.9 counts that he seems to
recover from pretty quickly. In the end, Mark Briscoe is isolated and hit with
a double-team Widow’s Peak that finally ends this one, and it’s just a shame
that by the end I’m just glad it’s over rather than feeling exhilarated from a
hot match.
Chris Hero & Doug Williams vs Ippei Ota & Mohammed
Yone
Williams and Hero come off as the great tag team we never
got. Really felt like they compliment each other here – both look terrific as
they work over the more inexperienced Ota, but in different ways. Williams is
just solid, nothing flashy, but everything looks like it connects and feels
effective. Hero also has offence that looks good, but he’s adding a bit more
flash, like a backward roll into a senton or taking Ota over with a flipping cravate.
They don’t have it so easy when Yone is in the ring, working him as a peer, but
it’s Ota they try and keep in the ring. Ota does get to hit a long airplane
spin into a Samoan drop on Hero that gets a nice reaction, but he’s ultimately
the weak link in his team. As Williams keeps Yone occupied outside the ring,
Hero nails a huge big boot and the Hero’s Welcome to win. Good stuff here.
Takeshi Morishima vs KENTA
This is a really great ten minute fight. Basically, KENTA
goes into this with a gameplan to beat the shit out of Morishima as quickly as
possible, knowing that Morishima has the size and power advantage. Morishima
gets in a few blows, but KENTA nails 4 or 5 kicks for every one punch. KENTA
goes for broke on the outside, hitting a huge springboard double stomp to the
outside. Loved Morishima’s guttural yells after that, makes it feel like KENTA
has him. GTS only gets two, and a massive Morishima clothesline changes the
entire outlook of the match. A backdrop suplex only gets two, but KENTA is down
now, and Morishima just mauls him in the corner like an angry bear. KENTA has
enough energy to escape pinfalls, but not enough to make a comeback and
Morishima keeps hitting backdrop suplexes until KENTA can’t kick out any more.
Really great sprint.
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